Agreeing with EA CEO John Riccitiello, who said that a Supreme Court decision upholding the California law would “screw us up in a real way,” Green argued:

… it could have a chilling effect on the gaming industry as a whole--both the makers and sellers of the games, who will have to seriously think twice about the kind of product they can and want to sell, out of fear of ending up in jail. And therein lies the bigger question at hand. Because if you substitute books or movies or music in the previous couple sentences, you can see just how wrong this is.

Echoing sentiment from a previous post today on GP, Green takes issues with Governor Schwarzenegger’s upcoming movie The Expendables, noting that the MPAA movie ratings are voluntary, just like the ESRB Ratings for videogames. Green wrote, “As bloody as this movie may be, it's not actually illegal for a theater to sell a minor a ticket to this movie, nor is it illegal for a parent to let his or her kid in with them.”

Green continued:

If Schwarzenegger really believed in the underlying message of the law with his name on it---that it should be illegal to sell or rent material deemed excessively violent for kids---then he should take the first step and make it illegal for kids to see "The Expendables." Until then, this is all nothing but hypocrisy of the highest order.

Green urged those who care about the issue to sign the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) petition page dedicated to the issue.

No. The chemical reaction in your brain does not influence the film. I'll grant you that film is interactive to the point that you can shut it off (or fast-forward, pause, slow-mo, etc.) but in the context of influencing content, pacing, and the like, it is not interactive.

Also, if you're responding to a particular post, please use the "reply" button.

Is a movie where the viewer sympathizes with the criminal protagonist and roots for him to kill the cop antagonist really that less interactive than a game where you push a button to make the criminal protagonist kill the cop antagonist?

A movie might not be interactive, but sympathizing with a criminal protagonist and believing in the value of the described action can be argued to be more impactful than triggering a gameplay event. Video games are definitely interactive. In most games though, players are likely to be far less emotionally invested in the characters/dolls and the consequences of their actions.

An excellent point, and I happen to agree that the "it's interactive therefore it's more insidious" argument is a poor one. But Andrew's right -- if Arnold's claiming there's a qualitative difference in the dangers between violent games and violent movies, he's not a hypocrite; he's just wrong.

Though i would imagine that something that's more immersive would have more of an effect on the mind. I mean, when a animated movie about a bunch of toys loosing their owner can leave a grown man blubbering in a mess of tears, there has got to be something going on XD

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm